Crazy Cat Lady Duplex - BRRRR

[Pete Harper]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Fairfield.

Purchase price: $85,000
Cash invested: $100,000

Crazy cat lady duplex. This is going to be our most ambitious real estate project yet. This is a 1960's all brick duplex. It was originally build as a mother in law property with two identical 1200sqrft 2 Bedroom/1 Bath units. It was most recently occupied by the original owner who had cats. The place reeks of cat urine. She has moved to an assisted living facility and we purchased it from the family. With 1200sqrft to work with there is more potential in the property than just a 2BR/1BA. It has a half-assed carport conversion adding an unofficial 3rd bedroom. Our plan is to totally gut the house removing all the dated wood paneling, kitchen cabinets and bathrooms. We will rebuild as a 4 bedroom/ 2Bath with laundry. This will make the property family friendly in keeping with the residential neighborhood.

Since this is a bigger project than we have done before we plan on hiring a contractor to do the major work; demo, framing, electrical, plumbing, and sheet rock. My wife and I will do the finish work with new kitchen cabinets, new bath, flooring and paint. We have budgeted $60,000 and 6 months for the project.

All-in cost $145,000
ARV estimate $225,000
Rents $2200

After reno is complete and we have the property fully rented we plan on doing a cash-out refinance and go find another deal. BTW the cash for this property comes from a cash-out refinance of a 4-plex we purchased with 1031 exchange funds in September of 2019. The same capital has been cycled through two properties in a year. Gota love the BRRRR Strategy!

Update: We started off with a really bad contractor, the guy was literally a crook. From now on I run background checks on everyone I hire. We ended up firing him after he abandoned the job unfinished. Renovation took much longer than expected and cost more. I ended up doing a lot of the work myself to recover. In the end the deal turned out OK. We learned some valuable lessons and the place looks terrific. We have it all rented for more than I forecast so everything worked out in the end.

All-in cost $185,000
ARV estimate $250,000
Rents $2550

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

We saw the potential to add additional bedrooms and bath.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found the deal on MLS. We were originally the 2nd place bidder. The first place bidder backed out after they discovered a gas leak on inspection. We didn't care because we were going to make the property all electric and capped gas lines.

How did you finance this deal?

All cash deal. Money for purchase and renovations came from previous BRRRR. We used cash out refinance to fund.

How did you add value to the deal?

Complete renovation from bare studs. We added a bedroom and bath, opened up wall between kitchen and living room.

What was the outcome?

Long term buy and hold.
ARV $250,000
Plan to cash out refinance and do another BRRRR.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Painful lesson with dealing with contractors. Do a criminal background check before working with anyone.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Local agent Angela Kennedy